(Pictures to come tonight) Macy*s does a great job of spoiling you when it comes to fireworks. Like every 4th of July, they had the four barges of fireworks on the East River. But this year there was the bonus pair of barges off of lower Manhatten, between Brooklyn Heights and the Battery. So Jeff and I decided to continue our tradition (three years running baby!) and catch the fireworks. Instead of the crowded (and hot) FDR drive, we opted for the lower Manhatten show instead. Yesterday I scouted out the place ahead of time (see previous log entry), and felt that the Fulton Ferry Terminal was simply too small to accomidate all the people going to attend. The plan, therefor, was to get there extra early. Ridiculously early, in fact. 5:45 PM early. The thing is, nobody really goes down to the Fulton Ferry Terminal. Turns out that the Port Authority warehouses block the view of the lower fireworks. And hardly anybody thinks of going down that early. Who would be that crazy? Only two dozen of us, that's who. We got a nice spot right at the railing, between a couple with their kid (and the students behind them with a pair of honking big SLR's) and this couple who were a little too overly affectionate. The breeze was nice and cool, coming off of the river and bay (my face got all salty). And for the next 4 hours (that's right, four hours) we watched the river and chatted as we waited for night to come. The parade of barges was fun. The Coast Guard and the NYPD harbor unit escorted the first three barges as they rolled up the river single file. Surrounded by a much larger escort of large yachts (200 people size yachts), with a few boats in between the barges (it was a pretty lousy police escort). I can understand the desire to escort the barges, but do you really want to get that close to that much ordinance? And for some reason, the fourth barge was completely unescorted. But the police also failed to inspect any of our bags either, so security was not as tight as I would have liked. For some reason, it never starts on time. It's always supposed to start at 9:20. But that came and went. And then we had the indignity of having to sit and listen as the Jersey fireworks display went off. Lower Manhatten blocked the view. But when the first shell went off at 9:45PM, it was time to sit back and enjoy. The fireworks were a blast (pun intended). The big ones were big. The small ones were reflected off of the glass buildings of downtown. The camera was completely useless. Non stop for half an hour, a dozen shells (and big ones too) every 30 seconds, for 30 solid minutes. Some new ones this year. Some sparkly things that just hung in the air forever. Carpet bomblet style ones, that exploded into three waves of shiny explosions. Screamers, where the exploding pieces whoosed off in crazy patterns like rockets and sometimes exploded. Not as good as four barges, but I'm pretty sure better then Boston's. And the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory? They made a killing. . . . . . . . . . . So it comes down to two choices. The Sony PCG-FR130. 1.67Ghz Athlon, 40Gig HDD, 14.1" screen, 16mb Nvidia card, and floppy drive. vs. The Toshiba T24-S505. 2.2 Ghz P4, 60 Gig HDD, 15.1" screen, 32 mb nNvidia card, no floppy. $1240 vs. $1600. I'll be buying the Toshiba Monday (I think).